CHAPTER 427 - WELCOME MAT (2)

DEVIN’S POV

The sigh Penn released sounded so defeated. She tore her eyes from me and slipped out of the bed. She picked up her clothes from the mattress, and my heart clenched in disappointment. This time, she didn't take the sheet with her. She let me feast on her luscious, naked beauty while putting on her bra. 

My lips parted, craving her round, soft breasts. They teased me like juicy, low-hanging fruit. I was practically salivating. I couldn’t move my eyes.

My erection throbbed, straining against my stomach, roaring for her tightness. All the muscles in my body stiffened, and I closed my eyes to restrain myself.

My wolf stirred inside of me, wanting our hands on her again, but she was so mad and hurt that I felt hauntingly guilty for dragging her into my problems. 

Opening my eyes to find her, she was still by the bedside, now in her panties. My eyes trailed over the matching black underwear, which highlighted the defined curves of her waist and hips. All the memories of her softness flooded me, and I was greedy for more. 

Her wit, her charm, her beauty was too much for me. I didn't deserve her, and she didn't deserve a man like me. A man who couldn't even face his own heart.

“We can’t let another man possess her. She’s mine,” Krython growled. A darkness was seeping into him with dangerous intent. I immediately shoved him to the back of my mind and blocked him.

“I…” My voice fell, and I grimaced.

“You’re not a free man, Devin,” she fumed, raking her messy hair back as she put on her panties. “When I stay close to you, you ignore me, but when I say I’m done chasing you, that's when you want me. You don’t know where you want to be.”

She rambled with her burning gaze locked on mine so I could feel the brunt of her words, and they hit like a punch to my gut. I couldn’t get a word in.

As she finished pulling the short, green dress over her head and pushing her hands through the sleeves, the last thing she said was, “Cheryl wants you…her man…father of her unborn child.”

My heart squeezed at that. 

I flopped on my back and stared at the ceiling. “We’re talking things through. We haven’t made any decisions yet.”

It was complicated. 

Staying close to Cheryl was hurting Penn, giving her the wrong idea. On the other hand, staying close to Penn sent Cheryl into a distress fit. Either way, both ladies agonized over my relationship with the other. 

What was I supposed to do?

All of this was weighing heavily on my shoulders. I blew out a long breath, feeling my wolf’s aggravation.

I just didn’t know how to give her more of me without thinking that I was handing her a knife, which could make my heart bleed. That’s the big one. Trusting a woman wasn’t my strong suit.

Why did the moon goddess like to play with my head? Was she hoping that I’d go mad? It surely felt like it sometimes.

My eyes darted towards Penn, scanning her face. She stared at me with the saddest expression that stabbed my heart. 

When we first met, she was open and eager. She was always flirting and doing everything to be alone with me. The same woman who pretended to sprain her ankle so I could carry her home. Acting like she didn’t know anything about pack life just to corner me with questions, as a guise to keep me close to her.

Then with one kiss, she pushed past my walls. It was a kiss that pierced deep into my soul, branding me and urging me to claim her.

But now…she was withdrawing from me. It was what I wanted. Right? I should be happy. So what was this pit growing in my stomach? 

It must be the bond tearing at both of us. 

This made her the second woman to regret having a mate bond with me. 

I felt her pain, just as she felt mine, and the guilt was unbearable. 

Penn parted her curtain bangs with both hands and then placed them on her waist. “So what am I supposed to do: sit and wait for you to decide who you’re going to be with? Is that fair to me?” Her voice broke, pain evident. “I get that she had you first, but you said it was just an arrangement. So I don’t get why you’re complicating it for everyone.”

“Wait a minute. I never gave you any promises. Last night was all on you. You came to me.” I sat up in the bed and pushed a hand through my hair. I stared at her, pleading for some understanding. “Cher needs me throughout the pregnancy. It’s my kid, Penn. I don’t want her stressed.”

“That right there,” she emphasized icily, tears glistening in her lilacs, threatening to spill. She lifted her hand and then pointed to herself. “Those words make me feel like I’m ripping a father from his child, and I can’t live with that.”

My chest panged, and this suddenly felt like a break-up, when we weren’t even in a relationship.

“You aren’t in between us,” I promptly explained, lunging out of bed after her, but my foot snagged in the sheet. I stumbled hard, barely keeping myself from falling. “That’s not what I meant.”

I growled, cursing inwardly as I wrestled my foot out of the sheet tangled around it. Once loose, I stepped toward her. 

“When you’d rather bite my shoulder and other parts of my body than mark me, that says it all.” She flicked her hand, and I froze, feeling the air hum with magic. “A girl can take only so many rejections, Devin.”

She was going to use her magic on me.

My breath caught as the shock widened my eyes. I shook my head to say, "Don’t do that."

Her eyes narrowed in a challenge.

I shook my head more vigorously.

Cocking a brow up, she smirked smugly and nodded slowly. “The last wizard who tried to play me, I turned him into a seat cushion and left him at a seniors’ home in the human zone. He’ll be dealing with butts and farts for the rest of his life.”

My mouth parted, stunned. Damn, I really shouldn’t have ticked her off.

She flicked two rabbit fingers. 

I was thrown off my game as the sheet shot from the bed. Before I could react, it rapidly wrapped around my chest, whipping around my arms and pressing them rigidly to my sides. It wound around my legs, locking them together. My eyes bulged as I stood with my body in a tight blue cocoon, leaving my neck and head out. I twisted my shoulders, wrenching my arms against the tight fabric, but I was stuck. 

“A mate was never something I thought I’d have. It’s rare when a witch gets mated, Devin. To have one person, out of everyone in the universe, who is meant for me…I thought I was pretty special to get you. It made me so happy, but you’re always distant.” Her voice cracked, and she paused. 

I ceased my movements and gazed keenly into her lilacs. 

“It hurts, Devin.” She blinked away the pain sinking deeper into her eyes, and she cleared her throat. 

 I’ve never felt this type of guilt for anything in my life before.

“So I’m not going to be the welcome mat that you can stomp on and pass over whenever you like. Until you sort it out. This…” She flashed her finger from me to her, back and forth. 

My heart hammered as I watched her fingers move, hoping she wasn’t going to send out lightning charges next. There’s nothing like a pissed-off powerful witch. 

“You-me…us…can’t be hooking up.” For words that started so angry, they ended bitter and laced with pain. “Stay away from me.”

A dark pit of dismay sank in my gut, and everything within me refused to accept that.

“I’ve been clear about everything from the start.” I frowned. “You’re driving me crazy, and I...” I trailed off because the rest of my words wouldn’t be fair…to tell her how hard it was to go even a day without seeing her.

She didn’t say another word. The desperation in her eyes was unlike anything I'd seen before, and that said more than enough. She pressed her lips into a thin line, her nostrils flared with every breath, and her hands balled into fists at her sides. I could feel the air fizzle around us as her anger wavered.

Finally, her energy relented, and she turned on her heels, marching towards the door.

My heart slammed in my chest with panic. A rumble of growls came from my throat as I twisted and jerked against the sheet, trying to force my arms free. The more I struggled, the tighter the fabric became.

Trapped in the sheet like a pathetic leaproach in a goliath birdeater’s spiderweb, I had no choice but to hop after her.

“Penn, you’re just going to run?” It was useless calling after her because she never looked back. She disappeared out the door. “Wait!”

I jumped all the way to the doorway, but the damn sheet was such an obstacle. My panic spiraled as she got further down the hallway.

Krython rippled my skin, fighting for control.

I thrashed in the sheet, using all my strength. By the time I extended my claws and ripped the sheet to get out, she was gone.

I stared down the hallway with a hollow emptiness from already missing her, and I was very furious with myself.

“You could have said anything you wanted to say to our mate, but why the hell did you have to say that?” Krython chastised, angered. “I don’t like this. Go find her.”

“Oh, shut up,” I grumbled bitterly, and let us shift in our wolf.

We trailed her sweet pea-wild berries scent to track her in the quiet darkness. We found her in the large, underground parking lot that was completely lit by low-bay LED lights.  She was getting into her car, its hood facing the asphalted driving lane. 

My wolf sat directly across from her with the stretch of the driving lane between us, our heart aching.

As she sat in the driver’s seat, started the engine, and hit her lights, she stared at my wolf for a minute before driving out. 

Krython ran behind her car, determined to see that she got home safely.

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